DAVOS, Switzerland (CNN) -- Could artificially intelligent robots
signal the end of the human race? Some Swiss scientists say such a
threat may be closer than we think.

Their doom and gloom talk was prompted by one of their own
creations: an autonomous robot that learns from its environment.

Within a few minutes, the microprocessor based robot can learn not
to bump into a barrier. No one programs the robot's actions, and its
creator isn't exactly sure how it will behave in any given situation.

Within 10 years, they predict that similar but more advanced
machines, equipped with artificial intelligence, will be as clever as
humans. Soon after, they say, the man-made objects could become
more intelligent than their creators -- and capable of taking over.

"Next century's global politics will be dominated by the question of
should humanity build ultra-intelligent machines or not," said Hugo de
Garis, who's already created an artificially intelligent machine.

"In fact, I'm going so far as saying
there will be major warfare
between these two major groups,
one saying building machines is the
destiny of the human species,
something people should do and
the other group saying it's too
dangerous," de Garis said.

Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics -- the science of
comparing biological and computerized brains -- agrees that thinking
robots could be dangerous.

"I can't see any reason why machines will not be more intelligent
than humans in the next 20 to 30 years and that is an enormous
threat," Warwick said.

De Garis speculates that the robots might soon tire of their human
creators.

"We could never be sure these artellects, as we call them -- artificial
intellects -- wouldn't decide that humanity is a pest and try to
exterminate us, and they'd be so intelligent they could do it easily,"
de Garis said.

Warwick has even gloomier premonitions.

"We're talking in the future the end of the human race as we know
it," Warwick said.

The day when robots no longer do what we want them to may
already be here.

De Garis' machine quickly decided it was camera shy and refused to
be filmed by a CNN crew.

Shy or not, only time will tell if these artificially intelligent machines
will evolve enough to bring about our demise.